Film Review: The Bikes Of Wrath

Film Review: The Bikes Of Wrath (2019)

“…the boys’ journey inspires so much good in those they meet. If this film can teach us to be kind to one another, then the journey was surely worth it.”

There are many reasons to go on a particular, specific road-trip: you saw it in a film and fell in love with the scenery and atmosphere, you learned about it in school and had to see it for yourself one day, your friends were going and you wanted to share the experience with them, or perhaps you read about it in a book and wanted to see it with your own eyes. Now, imagine the book is eighty years old and describes the landscape as a literal “Dust Bowl” and the experience of trudging across the country as hellish. Does that sound like a fun adventure?

There are many iconic American road trips chronicled in film and literature, but none inspires such dread and discomfort as the westward migration of the Okies in 1930s, depression-era America described by author John Steinbeck in his seminal novel The Grapes of Wrath. But for five gung-ho Aussie adventurers there was nothing more inspiring for a trip than the plight of the midwest farmer forced west in search of work and opportunity.

Filmmakers Charlie Turnbull and Cameron Ford, along with their mates; director of photography Red Chaouki, Leon Morton and photographer Oliver Chiswell, wanted to recreate the westward migration of the fictional Joad family from their favourite book, from Oklahoma to California. Opting to cycle to best take in the countryside and recreate the tough slog of the original migrants, the friends set off with the modern day equivalent of the Joad’s $18, and hit the road with a trailer full of instruments and hearts full of hopes and dreams.